You can't (or at least you shouldn't) fry anything in Olive oil. It will smoke and degrade into potentially unhealthy chemicals.

This is only true for lower quality extra virgin olive oil. High quality extra virgin olive oil with low acidity has a high smoke point. Also, virgin olive oil has a smoke point comparable to refined canola oil (only slightly lower), at 199C vs 204C. For reference, there is a chart of smoke points here. Unless you are using extra virgin olive oil, you are safe frying in light olive oil at about 199C.

...Of course, this being the internet, you have the usual suspects crying chicken little, the sky is falling.

They're also smugly saying "I told you so" - and doing so seemingly without understanding the situation. The situation hasn't changed since the beginning: don't use the service if you don't trust the encryption. If the service is breached and the (open source, peer reviewed) encryption stands up to attack, then the threat is astronomically minimal.

"We" is the people that actually do work in the tech industry & engineering. When I go to work in the morning I don't care if you're white, black, purple, gay, straight, trans-gendered, female, pierced, tattooed, et al. All I care about (those that I work about care about) is if you get your work done and if it's quality work. It's been that way for a while and it's been that way with most people I work with and know.

It's why a lot of similar industries don't care about your attire and you can get away with piercings, colored hair and tattoos

It's great that all you care about is results. I wish that there were more people like you. However, it doesn't mean that the tech industry is immune from the wage gap (or position gap) between men and women. It has and it continues to happen. There are some companies who are pioneers in this sense, too. However, these are not the norm. While I am optimistic about progress, we have a long way to go to establish equality. I welcome hearing about it on Slashdot, as the topic is worthy of discussion. To squelch discussion is being complicit with the status quo, which is a form of racism/sexism in and of itself. Please don't take that as me accusing you of anything. It's not my point. My point is to explain the merits of discussing it here.

That's the thing. I believe in social justice. And the way to get 'social justice' is to stop pointing out the differences and turning sides against each other. Women and LGBT have been in 'industry' for a long time. (Grace Murray Hopper graduated from Yale in the 30s) It's not an issue for most people. The only people that think it's an issue are the ones that are trying to grandstand it into something more than it is.

Tim Cook wasn't really deep in the closet before he came out, it's just that it was a non-issue around Apple.

I agree that the tech industry is diverse. However, it continues to be a male-dominated industry. If certain people feel alienated, or there is a wage/position gap - should they not be free to voice their opinion? Should they not be welcome to engage in discussion about it (it's not like anyone is forcing anyone else to participate in it)? What makes Slashdot the wrong place for it? I mean, if they're "nerds" in their field, should they head over to Ms-Slashdot.org and discuss it there? Just because the CEO of Apple's sexuality was a non-issue, does it mean that others in other companies do not experience it on a wholesale basis? Another example: while I am a huge admirer of Grace Hopper, her story is an exceptional one, considering that she practically stands along among history's female computer pioneers.

With respect to how to achieve social justice, I don't know if I agree with you. There is really no way to point out how inequality within the status quo without someone feeling attacked. Every online discussion that I have ever read about gender equality or racism results in a person in the majority (who is usually white, male, and/or heterosexual) attacking back, or at least pushing back in a way that indicates that they feel threatened. This type of behavior is endemic to the status quo. An attempt at social change that will negatively affect the privileged will often result in a negative response. At best, activists of social justice are accused of being divisive or stirring the pot. Maybe they are being divisive, but maybe they're right to be if they've been living with inequality their entire lives.

I also understand your point about grandstanding. However, if we agree to stipulate that there are a few people who grandstand about race/gender/LGBT issues for their own purposes, I don't think that it is fair to dismiss or otherwise not discuss all other claims on that basis. Similarly, when you mentioned in the GPP that you didn't care about Gamergate - I really do. I mean, this was a case of gamers actively harassing outspoken women who wished nothing more than to change the status quo of what they believe is sexist industry and culture. Irrespective of the merit of the actual arguments, the community response was generally despicable, and I couldn't think of a better place for it than Slashdot.

I'm not trying to get into an argument with you here. I honestly respect your opinion - and I can see that we feel differently about this. That's fine. We live in a fairly diverse country, and the tech industry does not exist in the vacuum of a few companies who pioneer. My point is that I welcome hearing voices from all of these people here.

I like a lot of what you had to say, but please forgive me for being pedantic on one point that you've made.

On 'Gamergate', 'sexual equality', 'gender issues', we don't care

Who's we white man?;)

It's great for you that you're privileged enough to not have to care about issues of gender equality. However, to be clear, I do care about that stuff, and if you have any interest in social justice, I believe that you should too.

My last point with respect to your sinking ship comment, I believe that there is one major shortfall that you missed, and it's not/.'s fault. It's the/. user community itself. Seriously, commenters here are almost as bad as YouTube - going straight for the ad hominem jugular over something as minor as an error in punctuation (or worse, a technical error in a post). I suppose that it's endemic to any Internet forum, but some places are better than others...and this place is worse than many others. It's like a magnet for internet buttholes and tough guys. There isn't much that can be done about it, other than trusting the moderation system, but that kind of environment does tend to stifle productive and respectful dialog.

Well, either he did manage to access the flight controls from the entertainment system, or he didn't.

If he didn't, I don't think the FBI has much of a case.

I don't think that this has anything to do with whether or not the FBI actually has a case. I suspect that this is the federal government sending a message to security researchers that airplanes are off-limits. It's the same reason for the TSA's billions of dollars of security theater - it's not about safety, it's about making people feel like they are safe. If average citizens do not feel safe flying, they won't fly and we won't have an airline industry. This would have a tremendous effect on our economy. If average citizens believe that flight control systems can be hacked by a geek in his/her seat with a laptop, they will not feel safe, and may not fly.

I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist, and I'm not about to start now. However, given the fact that it seems other-worldly outlandish that a security researcher can gain control of any flight controls via the wi-fi entertainment system, I strongly suspect that this is the purpose of the FBI's heavy-handed tactics.

Good post, I agree with every point that you've made. However, I'd like to add one thing:

When dealing with the police, avoid being black. This will greatly reduce your chances of being beaten, unlawfully being detained/arrested/searched, or otherwise having your other civil rights violated.

No, that is not tax evasion, I believe that you may be confused about the terminology (or are doing it on purpose for the sake of hyperbole, which is even more unhelpful). This is a case of setting up earnings to be tax advantaged (or tax avoidance), either deliberately or as an advantageous consequence of something that is potentially very good. There is a very real difference (see the article heading where it says "not to be confused with tax avoidance"). One is criminal, the other is sound money management. To put it another way, are you suggesting that you do not take any tax deductions?

When I plug my iphone into my car it constantly resets as it tries to draw too much power and the car circuit breaker kicks in.

Your car has a circuit breaker? Do you drive a Vector, replace your fuse box with a breaker box, or something else that I don't know about? Seriously - I've always wanted to know why cars use fuses and not breakers, and if modern cars are switching over for some applications.

I fail to understand just why so many here want federal solutions to their local market problem, which greatly stems from your local gov't (PUCo and such)

There are a few reasons. First, a federal solution makes sense because the problem is systemic throughout the nation. Further, these abuses of local/regional monopolies are happening at the hands of a handful of national companies. Finally, I don't think that local PUC's are able to understand and manage the issue at hand.

I'd heard stories about that $5 fine, and if I remember correctly, it was an energy consumption fee. State police would give a receipt to people driving through the state and tell violators to hang onto it if they were stopped again, it was valid all day long.